Women’s labour has long sustained households, economies and societies, yet much of it remains invisible in economic thinking and public policy. From agricultural fields to domestic spaces and emotional care, women’s work is routinely excluded from what is counted as “productive”. This enduring invisibility continues to shape gender inequality in both economic outcomes and social recognition.
Literary insight into invisible labour
As early as 1739, captured this invisibility in her poem “”, describing women harvesting, gleaning and working “with all our Heart”, yet remaining unacknowledged. Her verse highlights a historical continuity: women’s labour has always been present, but rarely recognised.
The scale of unpaid work today
Contemporary data reinforces this reality. A 2023 United Nations report shows that women globally spend about 2.8 more hours per day than men on unpaid care and domestic work. While housework and caregiving have slowly entered public discourse, emotional and mental labour — managing relationships, resolving conflicts, sustaining family well-being — remains largely invisible. Yet this labour is essential for the smooth functioning of families and, by extension, economies.
Why care work is systematically undervalued
Feminist political economists such as , and argue that this invisibility is not accidental. Economic systems have long privileged market-based, male-dominated “productive” labour, while relegating care work to the private sphere. The focus on GDP growth, male breadwinner employment and physical infrastructure investment has systematically marginalised social infrastructure such as childcare, elder care and mental health services — sectors dominated by women.
Production versus social reproduction
has shown how biological arguments were used to naturalise women’s role in reproduction, concealing the historical and social construction of gendered labour divisions. The separation between production (market work) and social reproduction (care and household labour) reinforced women’s subordination while allowing economies to benefit from their unpaid work. The continued exclusion of women’s labour from economic accounting thus represents a continuation of this subjugation.
Global attempts at legal recognition
Efforts to recognise unpaid care work institutionally remain scattered. Some countries have taken limited but significant steps:
- Bolivia’s Constitution recognises housework as an economic activity that generates social welfare and entitles women to social security.
- Trinidad and Tobago’s Counting Unremunerated Work Act (1996) mandates the valuation of unpaid household and care work.
- Argentina allows pension credits for unpaid care work undertaken while raising children.
However, even these frameworks largely ignore emotional and mental labour, which remains beyond legal and policy recognition.
India’s silence and judicial interventions
In India, there is still no comprehensive legal framework recognising or compensating unpaid care and emotional labour, despite its centrality to family life and the economy. Nonetheless, courts have begun to acknowledge its value. In “”, the Madras High Court ruled that a wife’s unpaid household and caregiving work indirectly contributed to asset creation, entitling her to an equal share of property. Such judgments signal a shift, but remain piecemeal.
Beyond recognition: restructuring social relations
Recognition alone is insufficient without a deeper restructuring of gender relations. Unless men actively share care responsibilities, unpaid labour will remain feminised. This either restricts women’s participation in the formal economy or transfers reproductive labour to poorer and marginalised women, reinforcing class and caste hierarchies. A genuine revaluation of labour must therefore address both economic valuation and social norms.
Revaluing emotional labour
Any meaningful reassessment of work must include emotional labour — the invisible effort of sustaining relationships, managing stress and ensuring social cohesion. Though central to households and communities, it remains absent from policy frameworks and economic measures. Without acknowledging this dimension, attempts to value women’s labour will remain incomplete.
What to note for Prelims?
- Concept of unpaid care work and emotional labour.
- Gender gap in unpaid work (UN estimates).
- Examples of constitutional and legal recognition of unpaid work.
- Key feminist scholars associated with care economy debates.
What to note for Mains?
- Production vs social reproduction in feminist economics.
- Limitations of GDP as a measure of economic contribution.
- Judicial recognition of unpaid labour in India.
- Need for gender-sensitive economic and social policy reforms.
